Critical oxygen system for Royal London coronavirus wards delivered in 21 days

Critical oxygen system for Royal London coronavirus wards delivered in 21 days

Critical oxygen system for Royal London coronavirus wards delivered in 21 days

Royal London COVID 19

Project: Royal London Hospital Coronavirus Wards

Client: Barts Health Hospital Trust

Timing: April 2020

Value: £0.9M

 

Medical Gases worked around the clock to provide the essential oxygen delivery systems to two floors at Royal London, providing capacity for coronavirus patients to relieve the pressure on other hospital facilities and providing a lasting legacy of increased capacity.

 

Background

Barts Health hospital trust instructed Medical Gases to provide a system to supply essential Oxygen, Medical air 4 Bar and Medical Vacuum to the previously mothballed 14th and 15th floors at the Royal London Hospital serving 176 intensive care and high dependency beds. The project had to be delivered in three weeks.

 

The Challenge

Timing was the obvious initial challenge of the project, which necessitated condensing a project that involved over 6000 metres of pipework and 700 medical gas terminals, and would ordinarily take six months, into the three-week schedule.

 

Putting in the extra hours to deliver

Credit for the successful delivery of the project must go to the onsite team of thirty who worked twelve to fourteen-hour shifts during the contract to ensure its success, complying with the additional requirements of Covid-19 safe working. The team started on site on 7th April and fully completed, including commissioning, just over three weeks later on 1st May. Medical Gases staff on site and off, and the collective expertise built during the company’s 37 years of designing and installing gas delivery systems, proved its value. A less skilled or motivated team could not have achieved the speed or quality of result that was demonstrated in completing this contract in such a short period.

 

Teamwork to overcome access issues

Access is often an issue on contracts in London. In this case the challenge was having one service lift between the basement and the 15th floor for the circa 250 people working there. Due to safe distancing, the lift could only be used by four people at a time so there was a challenge for the team getting to the floors but there was also a challenge in getting the necessary material up. Medical gas degreased copper tube comes in six metre lengths which would not fit in the lift. Cutting the pipework in half to move it up in the lift and then joining it again would be far too time consuming and create unnecessary jointing. Working as a team, forty men, working two on each landing, passed the pipework up the stairwell between the handrails in a procedure which took four and a half hours but undoubtedly saved time on the project and achieved a superior result.

Royal London Covid pipework

Site access in lockdown

To ensure as few delays as possible in getting the people and resources required on site, everyone involved in the project was issued with a document to present to police etc. as required, identifying them as carrying out essential work.

Euston Council’s relaxed parking restrictions and NCP reduced parking rates meant many of the onsite team did not have to travel by public transport. Medical Gases provided electric scooters to those still using over ground trains to get from station to site.

 

Fuelling the workers

Although there was no onsite canteen the hospital provided workers with picnics. Medical Gases is extremely grateful to everyone who worked with them to achieve what was required and was also touched by the support of the community. The curry house opposite the site – Sonargaon Restaurant, Whitechapel Road – which had stayed open with a take-away service, supplied the initial team of thirty with a curry free of charge.

 

Increased capacity now and for the future

The new floors at the Royal London have provided six critical care wards, which have enabled the space that was used for Covid-19 patients to be returned to its previous use, allowing routine services like elective surgery to restart.

 

“This facility allows our teams to separate Covid and non-Covid patients, and will help us encourage other patients who require treatment, but have not been able to attend hospital in recent weeks, to come back for essential surgery or care.”

Jackie Sullivan, chief executive of the Royal London

Source: Evening Standard

 

“These new wards will be used for many years to come, both during this pandemic and to meet other health needs of our wider local population.”

Alwen Williams, Barts Health group chief executive

Source: Evening Standard

 

Medical Gases delivered this significant project, and a concurrent project to provide essential oxygen at The Dragon’s Heart Hospital, at a speed not previously thought possible, and with no compromise on quality. It is a testament to all those involved. We are immensely proud of all our staff and the 70 installation engineers, who have worked so hard to deliver, and showed their commitment in such challenging circumstances, and are grateful to the suppliers who went above and beyond to support them. Thank you all.

Total clean utilities solution for B Braun’s state-of-the-art production facility

Total clean utilities solution for B Braun’s state-of-the-art production facility

 

CASE STUDY : B BRAUN

Total clean utilities solution for B Braun’s state-of-the-art production facility

 

 

 

Purified water is an essential ingredient in intravenous saline solution, which is one of the products produced by medical technology company B Braun. Puretech was commissioned to provide a single source solution for the essential clean utilities, including this purified water, water for injection, steam and compressed air, at the company’s new world-class production facility in Malaysia. Puretech worked with B Braun from design to validation to provide the required systems.

 

Background

B Braun is one of the world’s largest medical technology companies. Over a period of nine years the company has expanded its facilities in Penang, Malaysia with a project encompassing five new and enhanced production plants and other administrative buildings. The result is a state-of-the art facility featuring the latest building and production technologies for the manufacture medical devices for infusion therapy, pharmaceutical solutions and surgical instruments for the treatment of patients in Malaysia and around the world.

 

The project


Project summary

The design, manufacture, co-ordination, supply, installation, testing and commissioning and validation of turnkey high integrity delivery systems:

  • Purified water (PW) generation (Genesys)
  • Purified water (PW) storage and distribution
  • Water for injection (WFI) generation
  • Water for injection (WFI) storage and distribution
  • Pure steam generation and distribution
  • Clean compressed air distribution (CDA)

 

Detailed design study to meet exacting specification

Initially, Puretech was contracted to carry out a detailed design study to meet the specifications set out for B Braun’s planned new production facility at Bayan Lepas, Panang, Malaysia.

Co-ordinating with other contractors, Puretech provided detailed process piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), schedules, general arrangement (GA) drawings and 3D modelling of the entire clean utilities building.

 

Design to validation

Each system was fully designed and engineered at Puretech’s facility in Surrey, including the controls system integration into the client’s process control system.

All of the site piping, including the process connections to the client’s equipment and process vessels, was undertaken on site by Puretech. Individual skids for the PW systems and WFI system were built at Puretech in the UK and shipped to Malaysia for installation into the new clean utilities building.

All piping systems were fully validated, including site installation qualification, operation qualification (IQ/OQ) and full engineering data books to support the complete installation.

 

Meeting the challenges

Puretech supplies systems throughout the world and, through experience, has learnt to adapt to the challenges of a variety of climates and to be flexible and innovative in carrying out installations where the availability of general consumables and infrastructure parts is limited, as was the case for this project. Welding plant, tools and equipment of the quality required were also not readily available locally for this project and the climate and logistics of an overseas installation were compounded by a scarcity of appropriately qualified people locally.

Puretech Project Manager, Ian Chapman lived in Malaysia for 18 months to be on-site and to overcome any issues, ensuring successful delivery. Puretech worked to a tight programme for the production plant to be available and in service ready for commissioning. The total project from initial discussion took around three and a half years, with the installation and site works taking less than 15 months of this, including commissioning and validation. For the passivation acid rinse of the pipework Puretech sent out its own passivation kit and expert and bought citric acid locally.

The sheer scale of this project, which is one of the largest LVP (large volume parenteral) installations in Asia, was a step change for Puretech. Typically, systems contain 10 000 litres, the installation at  B Braun contains 100 000 litres of WFI split into two 50 000 litre vessels.

 

“We are very proud of our delivery of this significant project, working in challenging conditions and to a tight programme. The client was very impressed with the quality of our work”

Robert Smith, Sales and Commercial Director

 

Producing a vital ingredient

The system Puretech has designed for B Braun supplies WFI for LVP and SVP holding intravenous saline solutions for bags. The WFI is a carrier for Braun’s product and a vital ingredient, forming more than 90% of the final product.

A system designed for a facility in a hot climate must be modified accordingly. For B Braun the system feed water is warm, 25° versus circa <15° for European projects, so has to be chilled to 15°c for purified water to reduce microbiological growth. Purified water has to be distributed in insulated piping to maintain this. WFI is maintained at 70 to 80°c .

 

Safety and sustainability

In terms of safety, throughout the installation and site works Puretech had zero accidents. Puretech is conscious of sustainability in the design and delivery of its systems. In this instance the necessary hardware was packed in wooden crates and shipped in containers. There was very little on site wastage, which is always Puretech’s objective.

 

 

 

 

Sources:

https://www.bbraun.com/en/company/news-room/news/2018/2nd-quarter-2018/b–braun-opens-five-new-medical-production-facilities-in-penang.html

 

 

 

 

Innovation enables recycling of argon in solar ingot production for LONGi, China

Innovation enables recycling of argon in solar ingot production for LONGi, China

 

LONGi CASE STUDY

Innovation enables recycling of argon in solar ingot production for LONGi, China

 

LONGi is one of the six major Chinese manufacturers of photovoltaics and a developer of solar projects and the world’s largest manufacturer of mono-crystalline silicon wafers. We have supplied and installed 55 Argon0 units to serve existing and brand new facilities in Malaysia.

 

Delivering cost and carbon savings to an existing facility

The Argon0 units, which are relatively compact (about the size of a double wardrobe) and simple to install, can serve up to four furnaces at a time in this application. 15 of those supplied have been seamlessly integrated into LONGi Solar’s existing photovoltaic facility in Kuching, Malaysia where they have now been running 24 hours a day for over a year, delivering a return rate of over 94%.

Working with a Chinese-speaking partner in Taiwan to assist with client liaison and the installation, our UK commissioning engineer headed the team to ensure that the commissioning of the units met our standards. Post commissioning, a representative from our partner GR2L attended the site to confirm that all the units were working correctly.

Good working relations and a proactive attitude from those on site contributed positively to the speed and success of the project at Kuching.

 

Helping LONGi to retain its leadership position

40 Argon0 of the units we have supplied to LONGi have been installed in a brand-new facility for the production of 5GW monocrystalline ingots in Yunnan Lijiang, China. It is our largest installation to date and probably the world’s largest  installation for argon recovery. The stand-alone nature of the Argon0 and the fact that it connects to furnaces rather than the factory exhaust stream gives it a clear commercial advantage in simplicity of installation, which was an advantage on this project where we were working around other elements of the installation, and offers the potential for clients to test in situ.

LONGi has expressed a clear intent to concentrate on producing cost effective monocrystalline products* in order to consolidate its leading position in this segment. The Argon0s will contribute to this mission by reducing their demand for argon and will also have a significant impact on the carbon footprint of this huge business.

 

Creating one of the world’s largest know installations for argon recovery

Supplying 55 Argon0 units in one order is a considerable commitment but the team rose to the challenges in delivering a project of this scale and the units were ready on time and on specification.

 

Attention to every aspect of our delivery

The Argon0 units are shipped in bespoke crates designed to make shipping as cost effective as possible whilst ensuring safe delivery. Our crate supplier is a  member of the UK Wood Packaging Material Marking Programme and is approved by the Forestry Commission to provide ISPM 15, which means their products are compliant with international standards, and are suitable for use worldwide.